Hyperemesis Gravidarum again?

[Beckyb1991]

Hi ladies,

I'm back ttc baby no 2 as it took SO long last time, only on cycle 3 so early days. The only problem is I'm laying in bed most night worrying about getting hyperemesis again. My last pregnancy was awful, I had hyperemesis from 6 weeks until the end of my pregnancy. Sometimes I was being sick 60+ times a day , I was in and out of hospital because of dehydration and malnutrition and I lost nearly 4 stone in weight, I was so ill I had to take 12 weeks off of work and most of that was spent in bed or in hospital. When I was at work I was being sick constantly and passing out so was sent home most days anyway. Athe 29 weeks I was so dehydrated and weak from not eating I collapsed onto my stomach and I started contracting, was taken to hospital and given steroids but luckily the contractions eased off. At 34 weeks I was found to have a heart problem and was very poorly from that so I had to be induced for my own safety as well as my babys. Will I have to go through this again? Especially hyperemesis? Please can u tell me your experiences xxx

 

[Lilaco]

Hello. I've had 3 HG babies. I was sick with my first one but only one hospital stay with him.

It's likely hg will happen again, but not 100%but mine was under.control a lot earlier with my last baby x

 

[BunnyN]

I had HG with my 1st but it was 'mild' as far as HG goes. It hit me hard weeks 11 and 12 but the rest wasnt as bad. I only lost a stone but I had never felt so ill in my life. It was my only reservation about TTC again. I was especially worried about how to cope with a toddler and HG. I knew I wasnt able to look after myself the 1st time never mind a toddler. My second it turned out I just had bad morning sickness but I wouldnt call it HG. I could still eat and I although I was sick quite a lot and spent quite a lot of time lying down I was never totally bed bound and it started to improve at about 10 weeks. I lost only a little weight. My 3rd pregnancy the sickness was even less but sadly it ended in MC at 10 weeks. This pregnancy has been my worst by far. It hit at 6 weeks and I could hardly get out of bed between weeks 7 and 12 and ended up being unable to eat or drink anything. I would have been in hospital but we managed to arrange IV fluids at home. I lost 2.5 stone. Thank goodness it suddenly started to improve after 12 weeks. I think that was partly to do with starting accupuncture which seemed to help me a lot. I went from not eating and drinking anything and throwing up hourly one day to deciding I wanted to eat scrambled eggs for breakfast the next! The effect of the acupuncture seemed to last 3 days then I would start being sick again. At 14 weeks I still feel queasy a lot and have to take it easy still but am rarely sick and am just starting to leave the house and eat normal food (for a couple weeks I have been eating but only very specific foods that I could manage the thought of) I was still very weak and dizzy after the worst of the sickness stopped so it has taken me a while to build my strength. I really sympathise with you, HG is awful and I cant imagine what it is to have HG until the end of your pregnancy and thankfully I was never sick more than about 12 times a day. Nights were generally a bit better.

I think the best thing you can do if you plan to TTC again is to be prepaired. If your LO is going to be young. Have an area like the living room baby proofed. My second pregnancy I spent quite a bit of time lying on the floor or sofa with DD entertaining herself. She also watched more TV than I would have liked but it was a lifesaver at times. Have a plan B for child care if you get too sick to manage. I was totally unable to look after our two toddlers this time around. OH had planned things that he could take time off work if needed and grandparents and my sister were also a big help. Think about things that you can have prepaired. As soon as I found out I was pregnant this time I stocked the cupboards with shopping and the freezer with precooked meals which I was very glad of.

 

[Lilaco]

How did you manage to arrange home IV? That's what I'll be hoping to get if I get HG again. Ondansetron works really well for me, but its a right faff getting the consultants to prescribe it. Each time they insist on going though all the other anti-sickness meds first to see if they work (they don't!) and by then I'm that ill and dehydrated I'm in hospital for a couple of weeks until I get back on track!

Then when I'm better they stop prescribing ondansetron, and I get sick again, and then we go back though the whole trying off different meds until they decide that yes, actually I do need ondansetron...

 

[Beckyb1991]

Ondansatron was my savior at the end. Im just so scared I'll get it again , it really effected me bonding with my daughter xxx

 

[BunnyN]

How did you manage to arrange home IV? That's what I'll be hoping to get if I get HG again. Ondansetron works really well for me, but its a right faff getting the consultants to prescribe it. Each time they insist on going though all the other anti-sickness meds first to see if they work (they don't!) and by then I'm that ill and dehydrated I'm in hospital for a couple of weeks until I get back on track!

Then when I'm better they stop prescribing ondansetron, and I get sick again, and then we go back though the whole trying off different meds until they decide that yes, actually I do need ondansetron...

I'm in Portugal not the UK. We arranged a home visit from a doctor who said I would need to go to hospital for a drip. Then my husband managed to arrange a nurse to come privately. He just said the doctor said I needed a drip. We were able to buy the saline solution and glucose solution from the chemist and the nurse brought the needle and tubes and stuff. We have been in regular contact with our independent MW too who gave good guidance. The only thing I might have gotten in hospital was a solution with added nutrients but they said I would need my levels tested regularly for that to make sure I didnt get overdosed on something so its better in hospital. That is more likely to cause various side effects too so isnt always the best idea.

I was prescribed Ondansatron but couldnt take it because the only one available here has strawberry flavouring which I am very allergic to. We asked the doctor for it because we had heard good things about Ondansatron and HG. He prescribed it no problem but we would have had to pay for it ourselves because it isnt a medication that the state health service gives a discount on. It would have cost about £30 a month which is quite a lot but honestly at that point I would have paid a lot more for something that worked.

 

[Lilaco]

Ah right, I've never had a flavoured one. I know a lot of people who is worked wonders for.

£30 a month is pretty good if it gets rid of the sickness!

 

[BunnyN]

Yeh I agree, I wasnt about to argue with £30 a month. I think that was the minimum dose so it could be quite a bit more at maximum dose but I think I would have given all our savings for something that worked! I just didn't take it because of the stupid flavourings in it. It was the chewable tablet. It seems that they dont produce the normal tablet here. The only other option was injections but I had to go to hospital for that.

 

[Lilaco]

The melt tablets are.more expensive than the normal tablets. Seems silly they'd only have the expensive ones!

 

[BunnyN]

Plus I could just about keep tablets down but anything with a strong taste made me throw up instantly so even if I wasn't allergic to the flavoring I would have been trying to quickly swallow them whole before I got too much taste.